Qatari Interference in Israel’s Elections Shin Bet Ordered to Probe Suspected Foreign Funding and Arab Vote-Buying

PELONI:  See WireIsrael report at bottom regarding Qatari response as well as WIN report regarding Mossad potentially being brought into support the investigation.

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While Jews have no say in elections in Muslim countries, let alone a political role, almost a million Israel Arab voters voted for United List+Raam, whose leaders praise Hamas. It’s unsustainable. It is, in fact, a horror. This tolerance when applied to evil is evil.

With Arab parties projected to win 19 seats, the Joint List offers to help form a government without Netanyahu, even from outside the coalition; far-left radical Eisenkot’s bloc remains wary, while Likud challenges the legitimacy of Arab votes. The Joint List was  hardly tolerable to the Israeli public to begin with, thanks to members who call Hamas a charity and candidates who celebrated October 7. On election night it managed to make things worse. One of its MKs dedicated the victory to the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and “occupied Jerusalem” and accused the government of genocide, and supporters at party headquarters reportedly capped the night with “Biladi, Biladi,” a ‘Palestinian nationalist’ anthem.

 

WFB: It’s Noon in Israel: The Stolen Election?

Qatari envelopes of cash raise huge questions, and more.

It’s Thursday, October 29, and yesterday, it looked as if 2026 would go down in Israeli electoral history as the year of unprecedented Arab turnout. After the latest news, it may end up remembered as the year of unprecedented malign foreign interference.

Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg has ordered an inquiry by Israel’s internal security agency. His letter to Shin Bet chief David Zini, made public this morning, cites “serious suspicions of improper influence through foreign funding” by foreign actors working against Israel’s interests. If you follow improper influence until you meet foreign funding, you’ll end up in Doha. And indeed, according to Channel 12, the Shin Bet suspects that Qatari money was funneled into boosting Arab turnout, partly through channels previously used to move terror funds.

….never in Israeli history has a sector gone from the lowest turnout to the highest in the space of a single election. Take Umm al-Fahm, one of Israel’s largest Arab cities, where turnout reached 75.7 percent, up from 38.3 percent in 2022, a rise of almost 40 points. Election night taught us all a healthy skepticism of polls, but most forecasts saw Arab turnout rising to the mid-60s. Even the Joint List’s own internal polling put it at 61 percent, and its stated target was 70.

Even the more moderate Ra’am hasn’t come out with clean hands. The man caught with envelopes of cash was a senior figure at Siyua 48, the charity behind Ra’am, and the party’s Negev strongholds posted some of the sharpest jumps in turnout: the city of Hura rose from 49 percent to 79.1, while Rahat went from 60.6 to 82.

Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot’s plan for this election rested on two things: getting more seats than Likud, and Ra’am being able to make up the difference to reach 61. If he now lacks legitimacy because of his failure to achieve the former, then thanks to the Qatar allegations, Ra’am now lacks legitimacy for the latter.

Even short of sitting in the same government, the cost of any collaboration has just exploded. The anti-Netanyahu bloc, with the change bloc’s 48 seats and the Arab parties’ 19, is more than sufficient to replace the Knesset speaker and thereby take control of legislative procedure. That would have been Eisenkot’s first move after the swearing-in next week. But with coalition talks yet to come, and another election entirely possible, Eisenkot will pay a serious cost in public diplomacy in order to topple Likud Speaker Amir Ohana …(read the rest)

Israel’s Shin Bet launches investigation into suspected Muslim Brotherhood funding to influence Arab voter turnout in Israeli elections.

An explosive foreign-interference scandal is now before Israel’s Shin Bet. According to the Israel Hayom report shown here, Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg ordered an investigation into suspected Qatari funding intended to boost Arab voter turnout, alongside allegations of unlawful influence and election bribery by hostile actors. If substantiated, this would mean foreign money was being used to manipulate Israel’s democratic process from within. The allegations remain under investigation, but the stakes are clear: who supplied the money, who received it?

Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious bloc is projected at 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, short of the 61 needed for a majority, while the opposition led by Gadi Eisenkot has 48. Arab-led parties like the Joint List and Ra’am secured a record 19 seats thanks to high turnout. Likud accuses them of fraud including vote-buying and foreign funding from Qatar and Turkey, prompting a Shin Bet probe ordered by Elections Committee Chairman Noam Solberg, as both sides now court the Arab parties for coalition support.

Likud message:

The Ra’amgate affair is an earthquake. They stole the elections in Israel!

The judge Solberg’s statements about the involvement of foreign entities that interfered and bribed voters in favor of the Arab parties are an unprecedented shock.

This is an attack on democracy whose purpose is to lead to a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamization of Israel, and the overthrow of right-wing rule in order to lead to retreat and defeat of the IDF in all arenas – and primarily Iran.

After it was revealed that foreign entities tried to take over the Knesset, it is clear that no Zionist party should cooperate with Ra’am and the Joint List, replace the Knesset Speaker through votes bought for cash, and form a government that is dangerous to Israel.

We demand to act immediately and with all means available to the Shin Bet and the police to investigate these crimes.

Arab parties offer support but face silence
With Arab parties projected to win 19 seats, the Joint List offers to help form a government without Netanyahu, even from outside the coalition; Eisenkot’s bloc remains wary, while Likud challenges the legitimacy of Arab votes

Israel’s Arab parties, projected to win a combined 19 seats in the next Knesset, have offered to help replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, even without joining a new coalition. But despite their potentially decisive role in breaking the political deadlock, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot and key parties in his bloc have so far shown little willingness to embrace their support.

The Joint List formally declared Wednesday evening that it was prepared to cooperate with the opposition to establish an alternative government, following an election in which an unusually high turnout among Arab voters significantly strengthened their parliamentary representation.

From Gaza to Lebanon, war-battered Netanyahu strongholds stand by him

 

Mossad poised to join probe of possible Qatari, Turkish interference in Israeli election

By World Israel News Staff | World Israel News | Oct 29, 2026

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency may become involved in an expanding investigation into allegations of foreign interference in Tuesday’s Knesset election, according to a report published Thursday by Channel 14.

The report, citing sources familiar with the matter, said preliminary approaches had been made to the Mossad to determine whether the agency should participate in investigating suspected international funding networks connected to efforts to influence the election results.

Although no final decision has been made, sources involved in the discussions reportedly believe that the Mossad’s participation may become necessary because of the international nature of the suspected financial transfers.

The agency’s ability to gather intelligence overseas, trace financial networks operating across national borders and investigate activities involving foreign governments could provide capabilities unavailable to Israeli police and other domestic investigative authorities.

If approved, the Mossad’s involvement would significantly broaden an investigation that initially focused on suspected election bribery and irregularities at polling stations in Arab communities, potentially transforming it into a national security investigation examining the origins of the money, the individuals who transferred it and possible connections to foreign governments.

Continue Reading Article


Qatari response reported by WireIsrael.com:

Qatar has strongly rejected allegations that it attempted to influence the recent Israeli elections through financial transfers, dismissing the claims as a politically motivated disinformation campaign. Speaking on Thursday, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari stated that the accusations are both ridiculous and dangerous, arguing that certain Israeli political figures and media contacts are using Doha as a scapegoat to cover up their own domestic failures. Al-Ansari added that blaming Qatar for supposedly buying off various political factions—ranging from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the left and Arab voters—is absurd, joking that if the claims were true, Qatar would practically own the entire country.

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October 29, 2026 | Comments »

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